Congressman French Hill (3:05)

Well, I just think that Republicans want to work with President Trump to accomplish his goal. Reverse the curse of the Biden policies and regulation, taxation, open up the economy. Besides our tax policy and the big beautiful bill, I really believe that our mainstream Capital Access act will make capital more available for small businesses all across the nation, produce economic growth, particularly in the home building area. Mike Flood's 21st century housing bill that we put together lowers regulatory costs on building new homes, opens up things like the home program and the CDBG program to private sector partnerships to build more housing. We want more housing available. We want better at better prices. And that's the tack that we're taking. I think these are the priorities of the president.

Interviewer (3:56)

Congressman, as the chair of the Financial Services Committee, have you spoken to Chair Jay Powell speaking since the subpoena was delivered to him from the doj?

Congressman French Hill (4:06)

I have. Chairman Powell called and told me that this process was taking place.

Interviewer (4:11)

And does he have plans to come to the Hill to testify?

Congressman French Hill (4:15)

Well, we've invited the chairman to testify for his semiannual Humphrey Hawkins testimony and we're working out the date now. We'll do that typically in coordination both with the Fed and with the Senate Banking Committee so that we can get the Fed chairman up for his semiannual testimony on the Hill.

Interviewer (4:32)

Congressman, do you agree with the efforts put forward by Senator Tillis talking about potentially stymieing any of the candidates that President Trump is putting forward or will put forward for the Federal Reserve until the subpoena is removed or this issue is resolved?

Congressman French Hill (4:49)

Well, you know, my attitude about this is really simple, which is Fed independence doesn't mean the Fed's immune from criticism or governors at the Fed are immune from criticism. And if people have questions and concerns about the construction project down there, about how what expensive it is to build something in Washington, D.C. how expensive it is to build something after a 40 year high in inflation from the Fed and fiscal policy mistakes made at the end of the pandemic, those are legitimate questions. But to try to criminalize it and threaten people with a grand jury over disputes about that construction, I just, I don't agree with that. And I think the Congress can do oversight about the construction project. And I think, as I said in my statement, I think this is a distraction from our partnership with President Trump in lowering cost of living for our citizens through access to increasing access to capital, lowering the cost of building a home in this country, getting the economy growing along with all the improvements, the tremendous improvements we've had for working families that we passed in the one big beautiful bill last year.

Interviewer (5:59)

Do you think that it's actually illegitimate, this particular subpoena?

Congressman French Hill (6:04)

Well, I don't know that it's illegitimate because I'm not at the Justice Department and I'm not the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. I'd say it is, in my personal opinion, an overreaction to concerns about the construction at the Fed, and I don't agree with that approach.

Interviewer (6:21)

You've been friends with him for decades. Do you think he added to this distraction by coming out with a rare video as the markets were opening up in Asia instead of just replying to the subpoena?

Congressman French Hill (6:33)

Yeah, I think we'll always second guess whenever we make a public statement. As a public figure. I won't, I won't second guess the decision that he took about that. I'll just let it, let it play out the way it is. But I do believe that trying to criminalize that kind of behavior, I just don't agree with that.

Interviewer (6:52)

How delayed do you think this could make going through the process of the next Fed Chair?

Congressman French Hill (6:59)

Well, I think it could throw it off track. I think it's a distraction to Treasury Secretary Bessance very able partnership with the president to identify a new Fed chair, something they've worked on for months. And the president has had interviews consistently over the last few weeks, and he's close to taking a decision and that this decision, whoever made the recommendation to do this, I think was a mistake because I think, as I've said, it distracts from our economic agenda benefiting working families with lower cost and more accessibility to capital and housing. And it's a distraction to Treasury Secretary Bessant and President Trump's excellent work to identify a new leader for the Federal Reserve, something that we want and we want clarity on, on Capitol Hill. So that's, that's why I think whoever made a recommendation like this was not wise.

Interviewer (7:49)

It hasn't been a distraction for markets, though. They pretty much shrugged it off. Do you think the markets don't to want view this as, as real threat to independence.

Congressman French Hill (7:59)

That'S possible? I don't know that it's a threat to independence. I think it's a distraction to the work we're trying to do here to move the economy forward to complement the big tax changes we made to benefit working families last year. We want to do the same thing this year to open up regulatory policy, make it easy not only just to permit the growth of the energy industry in the country and critical minerals. These are goals of the president, but we also want to reduce that regul burden on housing construction and capital access for the American economy. And if we don't have a nominated and confirmed Federal Reserve chair, that's a distraction to getting that done in the right way. And I think it throws the president's mission off track. That's why I called it a distraction. I'm sticking with Congressman.

Jonathan (8:45)

Always appreciate your time, sir, and thank you for the congratulations. I promise you this I'll introduce a little guy to SEC football later this year. I can't make a promise that he's going to be a Razorback fan though. Okay. It's got to be a winning team.

Congressman French Hill (8:56)

French, we got to talk about.

Jonathan (8:57)

We'll try and work it out, Congressman. Thank you. Congressman French Hill with the latest.